HCC bags Rs 1,750 cr J&K tunnel building projects from IRCON

New Delhi: Infrastructure major Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) Tuesday said it has won a Rs 1,749.59 crore contract from IRCON International to construct two tunnels and a bridge in Jammu and Kashmir. The contract for the tunnels and bridge on Katra-Banihal Section of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla New BG Railway Line Project will be completed within 30 months, it added. [caption id=“attachment_2813016” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] “The contract involves construction of two main tunnels – T13 & part of T14 totaling 12.8 km along with parallel safety tunnels – a 200 m bridge adjoining these two tunnels and a station yard at Basindadhar,” HCC said in a statement. This is the fourth order HCC has been awarded by IRCON International. The first order was to construct 11-km long Pir Panjal Railway tunnel, the longest transportation tunnel in India, which has been successfully commissioned. The other two orders include construction of 10.2 km long T48 tunnel between Sumber and Sangaldan stations and 5.1 km long tunnel T49A which are currently under construction. Arun Karambelkar, President and CEO of HCC said, “HCC is pioneer in tunnelling works with over 300 km of tunnels constructed so far by various methodologies and in some of the most challenging geologies in the world. Besides, the company is currently engaged in tunnelling works of over 280 km across various sectors. Repeat orders from IRCON reflect our expertise in executing complex projects under challenging conditions.” IRCON International, an autonomous constructing agency for the Indian Railways, was entrusted with the task to construct of Baramulla to Dharam section of the UdhampurSrinagar Baramulla rail link. The railway line from Baramulla to Quazigund (119 km) was operational for public since October 2009. The Pir Panjal tunnel constructed between Quazigund and Banihal was inaugurated in July 2013, extending the train service till Banihal. HCC claims to have executed many of the country’s landmark infrastructure projects besides 26 per cent of India’s Hydel Power generation and over 65 per cent of India’s Nuclear Power generation capacities, over 3,600 lane km of Expressways and Highways, more than 300 km of complex Tunnelling and over 350 Bridges.